All credit to respective owners.
-Y.A.R.N.
Masana Tide grunted as she was bound with thick chains and a neural inhibitor on Vader's personal ship, unable to focus enough to pull herself free of the heavy bounds. She blearily looked up at Vader, who stared back after entering a moment ago, expression unreadable as ever through his mask. Ever since her very literal fall from Kashyyyk at the hands of Cal Kestis, things had gone from bad to worse in her life. Vader had come for her personally and she was tortured before having a cybernetic hand painfully grafted to flesh to replace what Kestis had taken from her. And even after all her suffering at his orders, Vader hadn't said a word about where she was or what she was here for. Every time she tried to think enough to call on The Force to aid her, Vader would come in and she would sweep in before any progress was made and choke her into submission.
That was not the case this time, as he entered and stood there.
With a brush of The Force against her temples the neural inhibitor snapped in half and fell to the floor, and at the same time, a lightsaber was tossed to her, clattering to a stop in front of her. She looked up surprised but with growing glee at the idea that she was finally being released to be back as an inquisitor. Her haze that clouded her mind caused the inhibitor's effects now receding, the lightsaber blazed to life as she used it to carefully melt the bindings so she could free herself from her prison. She got to her feet testing the feel of her lightsaber in her new hand, absently waving the blade around. She noticed that it didn't have the double saber that most inquisitors had and the guard didn't completely connect to the hilt.
It was still a lightsaber though and she would love to use it.
"Follow me." Vader commanded.
Masana desperately wanted to attack him.
But she was not foolish.
She wouldn't win, Vader would butcher her.
But the desire burned in a flame of hate.
He made his way to a door and as it hissed open he stepped to the side, gazing at her as he breathed audibly.
His black lenses stared at her and she met his gaze as she proceeded through the door.
The door slammed shut behind her and she whirled, wondering what was about to happen.
Some new torture?
"Kill her." Vader's voice rumbled from a comm system, "That is your next task Starkiller."
She ignited her lightsaber and scanned the darkness of the area she entered and after a moment of silence she heard the snap-hiss of a lightsaber; she turned to see a teen stalking towards her, lightsaber blazing red in a shien grip. Masana Tide sneered at the young man approaching her, stifling her urge to laugh out loud at the boy.
This was her opponent?
He wasn't even as old as Kestis had been!
He snarled and suddenly The Force was saturated with the sheer hate and rage that he emanated.
Masana took an involuntary step back at the sheer power radiating off this kid and the sheer weight of his power now weighing on her shoulders.
Now she realized why Vader kept her alive.
She wasn't ever going to be an inquisitor again.
Only a tool to hone Vader's revealed apprentice, to fight over and over until she died.
Starkiller lunged at her and she blocked his charge, teeth gritted as their connected blades spat sparks from their point of contact.
She hadn't considered death by combat.
Cal sat with Jeserra's disassembled lightsaber in front of him, gazing at the red crystal he extracted from the blade. He already took out the rotating hilt as they just seemed to be a liability in a fight; anyone who relied on that could have the lightsaber damaged by a strike and then loose their lightsaber for good. A few minutes with his tools and two new — yet traditional —lightsaber's were ready for use as a set of lightsabers, provided anyone wanted to use them as a set while one of them had a red blade. Cal then used The Force to hold the red crystal up to the light and wondered if he should try to heal the crystal; he didn't want to touch it as not hearing anything from it would mean it could just melt in his hand. He had to be extremely careful when placing a blue kyber crystal they had harvested in the other hilt, if he touched it, he would loose the crystal as it melted into a puddle. He hadn't wanted to impose his will over the crystal that was cold to him, but resources could not be ignored so he poured a bit of his feeling into it, tilting it in the light till a deep blue shone from it.
He heard about Merrin's encounter with Revan and how he had said they don't respond to anything, but he wanted to be careful.
He knew Merrin had healed her crystal but she could feel it and it attuned itself to her when she had fixed the bleeding. He didn't feel anything particular in the crystal as it didn't sing nor did it cry and wail to him, it was simply a shiny rock that slotted itself into a lightsaber to produce the crimson blade. He had offered Merrin the lightsabers — to at least hold onto — but she shook her head, stating she had her own and Cere was of the same mind. Greeze thought they should keep it as a collateral in case they needed funds, but all the jedi shot down that idea, knowing that having the crystal was more valuable than anything else. With Xavier cruising along side them they hadn't had a chance to ask him, but Cal doubted he's agree to take it as he still faltered over his abilities and conviction.
They couldn't reveal Dantooine's hidden caves to be mined — going so far as to cover the entrance and only leave a force lock over it — or go back to Illum for them anymore, better to keep one on hand that could be used by anyone if push came to shove.
But they all agreed that they shouldn't keep the crystal red, but it wasn't like they didn't have other crystals (the ones they harvested from Dantooine were still in their possession) that they could slot into the lightsaber (provided it didn't melt so long as they didn't hold them). In the end, Cal decided to hold onto the lightsabers and not use them unless something happened to the one he was using now. He could heal them later when he was alone, but it wasn't a necessity so it was a idea that could be shelved for the moment while they planned where to go.
On more important things…
Scans and communication haven't been too fruitful in locating any groups they could join, and with Empire censorship being what it is, there isn't any chance for them to trace news reports. Even with Cere doing her very best, it's not like the Rebel Alliance is staffed by completely underachieving people. These are people who saw the Empire War Machine raze pockets of dissent or resistance and realized their home could be next. They saw the injustice and wanted to fight once they had realized that they had the capability to do something and make the universe free again. But they had to be paranoid, they had to be careful about letting anyone know where or even who they were.
The Empire had the resources and might; the ability to churn out soldiers from Kamino and recruit spies, bounty hunters, and everything in between through money. They could destroy planets and turn them to dead worlds just to prove a point, they had done EXACTLY that TO prove they could and there was to be no retribution since they were the law.
The Alliance had to fight to survive, fight to keep going day after day.
They didn't have even a fraction of the Empire's abilities.
They fought because they understood that as long as they survived, the hope of the restricted and restrained survived alongside them.
Sustaining on Hope was hard though.
It burned too easily.
A fire like that needs constant fuel.
Red light saturated the room as the two sith clashed against each other, The Force churning around the two combatants. Masana snarled as the boy danced out of the way of another slash and repaid the failed attack with another scorch mark on her side.
This battle had had been nothing less than torture for Masana since it began.
She had initially tried to press the assault, lashing out with her usually aggressive style where she would just power through her foe. This boy — Starkiller — was much too fast and flexible for her to accurately hit. He was fire, hate, and rage honed into a blade far finer than she had ever seen, her time as an inquisitor had never pitted her against someone like this. Even if she didn't have her double-bladed lightsaber, she was reasonably confident in her lightsaber skills that she had honed all her life. But regardless of that, he was stronger, far far stronger than she thought anyone should've been. She now realized why Vader was such an impossibly terrifying figure even before now, if this was his still-in-training apprentice, then how strong was the Lord of the Sith? Starkiller slid past her attacks and sheared through her defenses before blitzing out of range of a counterattack. And on the few occasions that she managed to lock blades with him, she felt him boring down on her with a power she had never thought anyone other than Vader could have.
What made this nightmare worse were her cybernetic replacements, unable to function as she needed them to when he blasted her with lightning, something she had never seen any Sith do before. The artificial limbs reacted badly to lightning hitting them, the limbs twitching unnaturally as the electricity that controlled their movements out of control for a brief moment as the lightning kept them from reacting as they should. But that was all the time that Stakiller needed to attack and then draw away again, causing her to desperately retreat. He pressed his advantage and his blade blazed in the dark room, Masana desperately trying to keep away.
He stretched a hand out.
Masana Tide screamed as she fell onto her back from a Force Push, the foot that had been metal nothing more than barely-functioning, sparking, and twitching piece of junk and her replacement hand had been sheared off the wrist, metal edges still hot to the touch. Her body was littered with burns and scorch marks as she threw herself away from the lightsaber-wielding boy advancing on her. His stride was slow and steady, unhurried as he chased her down and reveling in her fear and terror. His expression was cold as he stretched out a hand and clenched it into a fist, crushing the bones in her already crippled arm as she howled. She still held her lightsaber but what could she even do with it? She had been outclassed from the moment the battle had begun; his speed and flexibility too fast for her to catch as he blitzed her with a myriad of Juyo and unique attacks. His power in the force far eclipsed her's and he was fully aware that she didn't have a prayer to beat him.
"Please…" She begged, "Please don't…"
Her leg crumpled beneath her as he turned her metal foot into a wad of useless metal with a clenching of his fist.
She fell to her knees and cried out as a lance of lightning crashed into her, causing her to spasm and wail in pain. Her lightsaber was yanked out of her hand and flew into his grip with a twitch of his free hand. He ignited the second blade and knocked aside the desperate force push she fired at him, indifference painting his features. He used the force to pull her into the air and begin choking her, while she scrabbled at her throat and tried to use the force to break free to no avail.
She was too weak.
He was too strong.
"You were actually one of the inquisitors?" He remarked, "No wonder you all were defeated by one neophyte padawan. You are pathetic."
He launched her own blade and it buried itself in her chest, Masana's breathed in a strangled gasp as she fell to the floor and Starkiller ignited his own lightsaber.
"And now you die." Starkiller snarled as he raised his blade.
It came down and ended the story of the fallen jedi and broken sith known as Masana Tide.
Vader loomed over Starkiller's shoulder as he stared down at the cooling corpse.
"Was she the best that I could fight?" Starkiller murmured, almost in disbelief at just how disappointing that had been.
"No… She was simply a broken inquisitor. A fallen Jedi who was too weak to resist and didn't have the necessary dedication to become strong; she fell to a neophyte who had only just regained what he had lost. You — my apprentice — have done something important in your journey; it is an important step for your growth. Killing without hesitation as you did is no small feat my apprentice, and now you know what it truly is like to kill a force user. It bodes well for your future at my side when we finally face the Emperor."
"I will not fail you master." Starkiller said, eyes blazing with determination.
Vader was silent for a very long moment, "That remains to be seen."
Cal eyes were closed as he concentrated on his force sight as he held his lightsaber up as several remote droids hovered around him, firing at him as they swirled around him. Cal swung his lightsaber around him, deflecting blaster bolts back and weaving through the storm, focusing on the Shien maneuvers and deflection that Zhar, Vandar, and Revan drilled into him over the course of his time with them. The Force sang in his ear as he batted blaster bolts back at the remotes with pinpoint accuracy. Cal intended to make his switch from Shien blaster bolt deflection to Niman close combat stances instantaneous with no lag. For all the polishing that he had applied over his time on Dantooine, Cal wasn't satisfied with how far he had come. He still had more powers he needed to refine, places he wanted to investigate, and a massive galaxy he wanted to help; that meant he had no time to rest until he was doing more harm to himself than good.
"Cal." Cere called, "Check this out."
Cal deactivated his lightsaber and used The Force to reflect some blaster bolts with his palms back at the droids before using The Force to deactivate them.
"What's up?" Cal inquired as he stepped into the cockpit.
"It took a lot of slicing but we picked up a few transmissions from Rebel groups that are scattered all throughout the galaxy. One of them even seems to be Partisan signal codes." Xavier's voice crackled over the comms, "It may be worth looking into to see if Saw is trying to get help. Thing is… the transmission is coming from Kashyyyk…"
"Wait, what?" Cal said incredulously, "Saw pulled out of that area two years ago, why would he suddenly want to go back and send a hidden call to any Rebels? Barely anyone from the original group that attacked Kashyyyk stayed behind to help the Wookies."
"Maybe he thought he could help with the Wookie slaving operations, try hampering them again?" Xavier offered, "Everyone knows that it is quite literally one of the most fortified planets for that very reason, Wookies are brilliant and tough, exceptional engineers with tons of brute power. Plus it turns out that the Wookie enslavement has been picking up recently, though no one seems to know why. None of us have kept up with the Empire's activities in recent times and it's entirely possible he went back."
"Or it could be a trap." Merrin countered, "The Empire could be trying to draw people in by sending those signals out. It's not hard for the Empire to have found those left behind and extract their signal codes. It could even be the remnants of the Partisans that stayed behind hoping for someone to save them or aid them."
The Force thrummed a warning deep in Cal's bones and he shook his head, "No… I don't want to risk it. If Merrin's right and it is a trap? We die. The shadowlands are no place to play at being heroes who can save everyone, we don't even have a place to take them even if it is the Partisans who need the help. When I last talked to the members of the Partisans that stayed behind, they were very clear that Saw deemed the planet as lost and didn't want to waste any more resources on it."
"So as I was saying, we do have a few other rebel signals," Cere said after a moment, mouth twisting into a grimace, "But nothing substantial enough to truly rely on. Nothing's consolidated. Scattered groups. They could all work if we tried to join them but..."
Cal frowned at what he saw, The Force whispered to him as he thought on each and every transmission he read. Nothing seemed to be right, the groups were all broadcasting aggression, attacking outposts and bases with no thought to limit the collateral. Merrin could read the emotions in the ship as her own connection to The Force probed Cere's emotions.
"They don't care about anything but violence do they?" The nightsister muttered in disappointment.
"No." Cal sighed, "They don't."
"It does explain why they have traceable signals though." Xavier grumbled shortly, "They are willing to get any aid, since only the desperate and uncaring join."
"So we can't join them…" Cere sighed, "If only we had a decent contact to work with…"
The Force hummed a name in Cere's ear, and a smirk appeared on her face, "Maybe we can find one…"